


Thick as Thieves, Shooting through Life

by Melphis_Amekia



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, Solarpunk/Dystopian AU, vrisrezi week
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 12:12:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7714468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melphis_Amekia/pseuds/Melphis_Amekia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vriska Serket is a high-tech thief, doing contracts for the "retrieval" of expensive and rare technology across China. She is the best in the business, and the hub of the business is in Shanghai. After a successful job, she is asked to do the impossible by her old flame and partner, Terezi Pyrope(who had grown weary and disgusted by their business), or they would all die. With the prospect of a challenge, the possibility of rekindling her relationship with Terezi, and a huge chance of death if she declines... well, how could she say no?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thick as Thieves, Shooting through Life

**Author's Note:**

> This is a very delayed birthday gift for terezi-discourse(on tumblr) that also perfectly fit Vrisrezi week, which is why I am posting it today. Hope you enjoy! I plan on upd8ing each 8th for the next 8 months until I am done.

The shot made only a faint sound before it hit the target. They fell as if dead, though they were only stunned. Vriska wasn’t shy of murder for her contracts (and, if she wanted to, taking of some of the bionic tech from the dead for extra cash), but it was always messy to deal with it and boring as hell. The mission being as difficult as possible? Absolutely perfect. Vriska loved challenge, relished it like a free climber climbing to the top of a mountain, all spider-like.

The cleanup work was just a boring distraction.

Vriska scanned the apartment, ignoring the tinge of electricity in the air, her vision eightfold enhanced eye poring over every inch of surface until it detected the PULSAR core behind a hidden door in the master bedroom. She made her way through the ultra-modern, expensive place, wishing she could borrow half of it for her own. Fuck, but those black, comfy as hell looking couches would be so much better used at her place.

Sadly, Vriska didn’t have any way to transport them there besides carrying, which was something only morons would do.

The hidden entrance was situated right behind a large bookcase. Vriska rolled her eyes. What a boring cliche. At least the entrance wasn’t just a bookcase - it was a neo-steel door, the glowing green paint designating it as a ‘Fallout’ door. Supposedly, it was the strongest, and most ecologically complaint, of all the available types. It demanded a password, voice recognition, DNA, and an old-time vault lock for input/decryption before Vriska could get inside. Password, voice and DNA samples were easy enough even for noobs, but the lock was the difficult part. Getting the right combination of numbers took a lot of skill and luck.

She opened it in 8 minutes exactly, even if she could’ve done it in three. These vaults were as easy for her to crack as anything else since they showed up on her jobs some years ago. The recent surge of people buying them out of fear just gave her more practice. Vriska Serket was a goddess amongst professional thiefs like her, and that was how she liked it.

The inside of the hidden room looked completely opposite to the pristine apartment before. Tools - ranging from basic equipment like hammers, pliers and saws to high-tech lasers, holograph projectors and a human-sized 3D chasis replicator - were neatly arranged along the walls and wooden desks of the dim-lit workshop (as it could be nothing else). Her prize was in the middle - a standard white cube, except for the bright red, round socket. Wasn’t such tech supposed to look cooler?

Whatever. Vriska put it in a protective case, which went in the inner pocket of her long blue trenchoat. She only had to deliver it and her job was done... but why not take a laser or a holograph? The job was done in 8/8 fashion, and the chumps here couldn’t even use it properly. She fiddled around with the sleek black buttons on one of the bigger lasers, intent on checking out what it could do. It was her custom to check if anything she wanted to take worked at all.

There was a distinct grating sound and Vriska reflexively pointed the laser away from herself, just in time to not get evaporated by a long, deep blue beam.

„Holy shit!” Vriska yelled, happy her luck held. This was a fantastic find. Lasers like this were still rare and in prototype stage. It was probably worth a hundred million yuan for the right buyer. The thought of getting that money was very inciting.

Out of curiosity, Vriska tried a battle stance - knees low, the laser sword held above her head - and slashed and cut through the air once, twice, eight times experimentally. It was practically weightless and so fast she would have had trouble tracking it were it not for her vision eightfold. She imagined being attacked from behind, twirled and parried the imaginary blade in such a way it would be thrown out of the assailants hand. Vriska wasn’t sure if doing that exact move was just a good reflex or something more, as she knew only one person who used that type of simple, effective technique.

What she was sure of was that the sword would stay with her. Screw hundreds of millions! A weapon like this was much more useful in expert hands, and other jobs would eventually get her to that amount of money anyway.

Vriska left the place, at ease as if she hadn’t done something „normal” people would call immoral and would imprison her for. As if that was going to happen! No one was good enough to get a thief like her.

She made her way throughout the city on her motorcycle, speeding through the awful Shanghai traffic despite the fact that the bike was forty years old and looked like it (though all the parts, even the cerulean painted frames and the 2,500 ccc engine, were only 2 years old). The streetlights were on even though it was only afternoon - the result of just too much pollution tainting the air. Not like Vriska cared. She didn’t cause it, she couldn’t fix it, but she sure as hell could survive if it went to shit.

When Vriska arrived to the fancy uptown hotel where she was supposed to give the core to the contractor, she was surprised not to see anyone of her usual associates mulling about somewhere. Perhaps something huge was happening, requiring by custom for them to gossip like a bunch of drunk bureaucrats in the hidden bar. Vriska would join in immediately if she wasn’t just returning from a job. Instead, she went in direction of the _other_ hidden part of the hotel, where the contractor rooms where located. The bar was for making deals, and this place was for finishing them. She made her way to the second last door on the right, entering the sparsely equipped but still comfortable-looking room like a queen.

Someone else sat in the place where Hui Ji, her contractor, should have waited. Someone Vriska Serket hadn’t seen in a long time.

„Long time, no _see_.” said Terezi Pyrope, carrying that huge, pointy smile Vriska remembered so vividly.

Vriska froze like a mannequin. If there was one thing she never expected to happen, it was her former partner-turned-legal Terezi Pyrope to appear here again after more than four years of absence, looking the same as ever - short, black, unruly hair; glaring red lipstick on her small lips, complementing her pointy shades that hid her blind eyes; with her old two-piece outfit in teal and red of a special kind of leather called „Carapace”, which fit better, was less aggravating, and could even partly protect from low-tier ammo like bullets.

„What the fucking hell are you doing here?” Vriska yelled, shaking herself out of her stupor. „Where is Ji? Have you killed him just to get another bit of revenge against me? I’ve paid more than enough for what I’ve done and you should have dropped that bullshit out already.”

Terezi cackled again, which sent shivers down Vriska’s spine. „You haven’t paid for what you’ve done yet, but that’s not what this is about. As far as Ji goes, he is perfectly fine. You know I would never harm a law-abiding citizen!”

„Like that stopped you before! You just made a show of a court before killing them!”

„Tsk, tsk. The prosecution always found damning evidence, which you know perfectly well. Even Lemonsnout agreed those were worthless criminals who deserved to be hung.”

Vriska snorted. „Shit, you are the only one crazy enough to bring a fucking stuffed dragon to a job, especially if it meant killing people.”

„Correction! I _was_ crazy enough to do that with you, of all people. These days, the only people that die by my hand are the ones I send to their deaths in the court. Which means none since this country makes it really difficult to issue death penalties outside of treason.”

„Let me repeat my original question, then. What the fuck are you doing here? It’s certainly nothing official, since you’d have your government approved shit on you, and you know you can talk freely since they don’t have any surveillance here.”

Terezi’s expression turned grave, her wide smile as if wiped from her face. Whatever this was about, it was big.

„I haven’t been paying much attention to you because I was swamped with work, besides taking a look if you were alive. I had to know if you were as good as before.” That smile of hers returned briefly. „You passed with flying colors, by the way. Not a single thing you’re gonna need real last-minute practice for.”

„At least somebody appreciates my skills besides these idiots.”

„Well, there are 413 or so things that could do with being more refined but there’s no time for that, anyway.” If it was possible, Terezi’s voice sounded even more serious than she looked. She was a pretty crazy girl, but it was unlike her to act like a stuck-up bureaucratic asshole whose job was to fuck over people with any and all procedures.

„Not enough time for _what_? You can’t keep me in suspense here. It’s not like I need some sort of an explanation why my ex-partner-and-girlfriend and almost killer,” Vriska stated, flexing her robotic arm, „suddenly showed up after four years and goes from ‘exactly the same person as before’ to ‘someone who is doomed’ in the span of 8 seconds like a crazy bitch!”

Out of all the things Terezi could have done, cackling like a madwoman when Vriska finished her speech was the most surprising thing, but completely unsurprising in a way.

„Will you fucking stop and explain yourself already, you psycho?” Vriska yelled.

„We are doomed, Vriska! You guessed it correctly. We are completely fucked... well, most people are. At least some will be saved.”

There was only one possibility that would make Terezi be so desperate, and that same thing chilled Vriska to the bone. It made no sense - it was the hottest day in months. She said nothing, waiting for Terezi to explain how she knew whatever she knew.

„OK, so...” Terezi sighed deeply. „You have been little in contact with the rest of us or you’d have known already. Feferi, with her connections, uncovered the plans for a war our government has planned against the entire Earth. Not „in case of escalation” war. Not „just against the US or just against the EU or just against Russia” war. A war they will start because they are too greedy and too stupid to look after their own people as they are required to by law. They would have started it already, but I have stalled them for long enough for us to still be alive now.”

Vriska stood there like a stone, absorbing everything Terezi was saying, all of the dread implications carried in those words.

„How the fuck did _you_ stall them? There’s no way you have that kind of power.”

Terezi looked at her with an inquisitive stare.

„With our legal code, it’s relatively easy to throw everything into a bureaucratic nightmare. But, that’s not what matters now. What matters is, how much do you know about the „Biodome Projects”?”

„Just that some airheaded scientists believe they can make self-sufficient floating paradises. Supposed to be a complete synergy of technology and nature and shit like that. No way it’s a thing. As far as I know, no one is close to finishing one of those monstrosities.”

„That’s where you’re completely wrong. The Chinese Biodome, _our_ Biodome, the Tónggēn Shēng, is almost done at out deep sea station off the coast of Shanghai. There is a very important component that is missing, held by the government. I have been appointed by them to „negotiate” with the scientists at the head of the project to carry out what they have been contracted to do, which was to keep quiet and let them all on the biodome and fill it with enough workforce to man the station so they could rule it as they rule China.”

„How come coat rats like them stood up against the mighty bureaucratic pillar that is the Chinese leadership? That’s impressive as fuck, damn. Would give them all fist bumps right now if I could.” Vriska really meant it. Not many would dare risk the Party’s wrath. Too many were spineless cowards, even among her line of work.

„With Feferi at the helm of the whole team and Kanaya, Aradia, Sollux and Karkat some of the staff members and the rest, besides Equius, Gamzee and Eridan among the workforce... we are worth almost a whole courtroom, dragon plushies included.”

That explained it. „Feferi’s has a crapton of pull as the daughter of the Party leader, and you’re good enough with the inside info to stop the progress on your end. Pretty clever. Though, if I was there, pulling all the strings, whatever you needed would already be in your hands.”

„Of course you would! If we didn’t kill you first.”

"Ha! As if that would have happened! I'd have taken you all at once without breaking a sweat. You know how much like I have!"

"All of the luck, I know." Terezi replied, exasperated. "Let's keep this to what's important, alright?"

“We decided to be quiet with this information, which serves both us and the government. They don't wish the fact that the Biodome is almost completed to be known because, if they start this war, there would be huge riots. The masses might be stupid but they rightly want to live. It is one of the main reasons why they haven’t already executed us all for treason. There’s also the fact that everyone on the biodome is extremely qualified workforce. It won’t matter, though, if we don’t get the component soon.” There was a hint of resignation in Terezi’s voice, like she was at the edge of giving up. Sure, the situation was terrifying as hell - Vriska hated the thought of being annihilated in nuclear fire for no reason and with no warning - but it almost...

No, she wasn’t going to go there today. The thing they had was over and done with, and there was no use moping about it.

„How long do you have till everything goes to shit?” Vriska asked instead.

„Exactly eight days.” was Terezi’s amused response.

„OK, that’s funny. How the hell do I fit in that crazy fucking plan you must have formed?”

Terezi’s smile returned, but it did not reach her eyes.

„What do you think of breaking in the Forbidden Palace, the most guarded place in China, without being seen, to retrieve our, khm, artifact?”

Oh my god. That was the most insane idea ever. That place had been on tight lockdown since the prospect of a dystopian future of their childhood became a reality twenty years ago and the government succeeded in controlling more aspects of life than ever before. It made sense the Party would keep that precious „artifact” there. The challenge of doing something so difficult successfully, seeing her already infamous face plastered all over the Chinese networks as a traitor once they finally identify her as the culprit... Everything in her was a rush, an excitement for taking on the world.

Before committing anything, however...

„What do I get out of it, Pyrope?”

„You get a place on Tónggēn Shēng and a lot of money. Gain some of my respect back too, and willingness to tolerate you on this mission. Better than ending up dead or wishing to be dead, you know? ”

Perfect.

„Well, I can’t say I never wanted to really take down those Party bastards.” Vriska said, bowing in acceptance.

„Glad we could reach an agreement, Serket. I hope I am not crazy by accepting you into this operation given the shit you pulled.” Terezi sounded serious, fuck.

„Come on, that’s ancient history by now! Seriously, I fucking apologized and everything and you’re still hounding me for that! You should have just layed off me for that by now, holy shit.”

„Apologizing is never-” she stopped herself, evidently exasperated. „No. Never mind. This argument is never going to produce anything worthwile. Let’s just get to the biodome so we can run the plan over with you. We need to work fast or we’re going to be thrown into the Qingpu canals before we can say biodome.”

„Don’t be so grumpy, Terezi. The two best thieves are back in action, tackling the most difficult and insane jobs, all the irons back in the fire!” Vriska put her arm around Terezi playfully. „It’ll be just like old days.”

„Yeah. Just like old days.” Terezi replied, cackling as she said it.

**Author's Note:**

> The name for the biodome, the Tónggēn Shēng, is from the poem "Quatrain of Seven Steps" by Cao Zhi, which is a really good poem you should read. Tónggēn Shēng means “selfsame root”.


End file.
